If today was your
last day Reminisce old memories So do whatever it
takes
And tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to
yesterday?
'Cause you can't rewind a moment in this life
Let nothin'
stand in your way
Cause the hands of time are never on your side
"If Today Was Your Last Day" - Nickelback
--
She didn't exactly get the big 'Welcome home Kazumi! We missed you!' that she had expected, but looking back on it, she realized that there was no way she could have dealt with anything of that sort. She had walked through the gates back into her village, exhausted to the core. The first thing she wanted was sleep, and then she would go party with her friends or something. Sleep first. She was ready to fall over and sleep right at the gates, but she decided she would go home instead and curl up with Shikamaru. That would work.
She trudged home, all the while complaining under her breath how ridiculously long that mission had been. And for what? Half of the time had been spent going to some stupid village nobody cared about or even knew about. She hadn't even known it existed until she had been given the mission. So she had gone on the stupid friggin mission, up to the stupid friggin village. At least it was over. She couldn't wait to sleep, oh, and see her friends. That too. She had missed them.
When she got home, she immediately went to the couch. The second her head hit the pillow, she was asleep.
The next morning, she walked to the kitchen and called out to Shikamaru. When he didn't respond, she figured he was still asleep. She made herself a breakfast of cereal, than changed her clothes and raced out of the house, excited to go see her friends again. Her first stop, Nikki and Kakashi's house. She probably needed to tell her dad she was home anyways. Not to mention, they were closest.
She rang the door bell, but nobody answered. "Lazy bums..." She muttered under her breath, ringing the bell again and again. Still nobody answered. She frowned, then turned away and walked to Raidon and Neji's. They answered.
"Kazumi! You're home!" Raidon said with a surprised face.
"What? No big 'Welcome back! We missed you!' and why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Kazumi asked, watching as Raidon's face fell. Raidon than looked down at the ground, as if she was ashamed.
"Is something wrong?" Kazumi asked, cocking her head to the side.
Raidon nodded slowly. "There's something I need to tell you..." She said slowly, looking back into the house. "Neji, I'll be back later." She called out, then walked out with Kazumi. Kazumi watched her friend, utterly confused, but found she was almost afraid to ask questions; Raidon was being way too quiet.
They passed by Lycan's house, and immediately Raidon stopped and stared at the door. Noticing her hesitation, Kazumi offered that they gather up the group since she hadn't seen everybody in a while. Raidon just nodded weakly then walked up the steps. In a moment, Lycan had joined them with a slight smile. Her smile faded as soon as she realized Kazumi still didn't know what had happened.
"You didn't tell her?!" Lycan asked, staring at Raidon with wide eyes.
"I... I..." Raidon stammered, scratching the back of her head. "I'm not sure how to... I was hoping we could go get Éclair first..."
"And Nikki." Kazumi added in. When Lycan and Raidon exchanged an uneasy glance, Kazumi knew there was a reason nobody had answered the door at Nikki's, but she didn't tell them she had stopped by. Instead the three of them walked to Éclair's. Lycan tried to make conversation, but Raidon was dead silent, and Kazumi was too confused to talk. She spent the whole time trying to figure out was they weren't telling her.
When they walked to Éclair's and Naruto's house, Kazumi ran to the door, saying she would go get Éclair. Lycan and Raidon waited by the street, whispering to each other, trying to figure out how to break the news to their friend.
"Welcome back Kazumi." Éclair said half-heartedly.
Kazumi sighed a quick thanks then frowned. She glanced over her shoulder at Raidon and Lycan before turning back to Éclair. "They're not telling me something. Did something happen while I was gone?"
Éclair's eyes widened quickly. "They didn't tell you?" She asked, and when Kazumi shook her head, Éclair started yelling at the two older girls. "Raidon! Lycan! How could you not tell her!"
"We don't know how! You tell her!" They both yelled back.
"Hell no!" Éclair snapped, glaring at them.
Raidon sighed and Lycan groaned. Meanwhile, Kazumi was glaring at the ground. Finally she snapped.
"What the hell is going on?! You guys aren't telling me shit! And where the hell is Nikki?!"
The other three girls looked at each other, not sure what to do. How could they tell her? None of them could believe it was still true. And how could they tell Kazumi? They just couldn't. But they had to.
Finally Raidon spoke. "We need to show you something." And with that, they led her to the cemetery.
"W-where are we going?" Kazumi asked, looking around with wide eyes. When it finally registered, her heart stopped and she froze mid-stride. She stared at the other girls with wide green eyes; tears were already streaming down her face. "W-who d-died?" She asked, her voice rising with panic.
Éclair bit her lip, and Raidon turned away, leaving Lycan to do the dirty work. She cocked her head to the side, in a manner that said 'follow me', then walked off towards the grave. Kazumi glanced back at Raidon and Éclair, and when they followed Lycan, she followed them.
"Here we are." Lycan said in a detached voice, that wasn't her usual spunky self. It as half there, and half gone.
When Kazumi walked to the grave, her eyes widened and she fell to her knees in front of the headstone. With a shaky hand, she touched the name engraved there, as if she could wipe it away to find it was all a cruel joke, and this was someone else's grave. But the name stayed there.
Hatake Kakashi
"Dad..." Her voice cracked as fresh tears streamed down her face. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed. "I'm sorry dad... I'm sorry..." She said, over and over, as if apologizing to him would bring him back.
For a while, the only sound was her sobbing and the other's girl's slight sniffles. Kazumi sat on her knees, Lycan stood in back and watched with her head slightly bowed, Raidon had sat down and was hugging her knees, but it was Clair that threw them all off. She walked over to the headstone, and rested her hand on top of it. She let out a 'hmph' sound, then shook her head.
"I'm sorry I teased you so much sensei. But really, all the time with those damn books?" She asked, laughing weakly as she wiped tears from her eyes. "And you always played favorites too. Nikki was obviously your fav, but Sasuke was a close-runner up. Nikki and I sure fixed that." She said with a slight smirk. "You two never let us live that down for shoving you guys in a closest together. It was funny though. You really though Sasuke was Nikki." Despite the tears in her eyes, she still laughed. "I thought we were gonna die when you two realized you were making out with each other."
Lycan roared with laughter. Raidon made a face, but giggled. Kazumi smiled weakly, and couldn't help laughing lightly.
"And what was it with the bell crap?" Éclair continued after she had finished laughing from the first round. "That was sick, you perv. Making us take a bell from down there. Nikki enjoyed that though." She smiled weakly. "Opps, I'm being mean again, aren't I? Sorry sensei." She wiped her eyes and sighed. For awhile she didn't say anything, and instead stared blankly at the ground. Then she patted the headstone and continued. "We miss you Kakashi-sensei..."
"Yeah... You taught us a lot." Raidon said. "Even me. And I was barely even your student. Thank you." She said in barely a whisper.
"I'm glad I got to know him. It was fun harassing him and Nikki." Lycan said with a chuckle.
"You pervert. I'm sure you just gave them ideas. Pervs." Éclair said, rolling her eyes. Lycan just laughed again.
Kazumi smiled lightly. "I'm glad I found out he was my real dad. He was a good dad." She said, wiping away tears with the back of her hand. "He was the best." Again the tears rolled down her cheeks and she tried to wipe them away, but she could still taste their salty tang in her mouth.
"He was..." Éclair said. Raidon nodded in agreement.
Lycan however was frowning. "Which brings us to something else we need to tell you about. Nikki."
Kazumi's heart stopped. "Oh... she must be a wreck... Where is she?"
Raidon hugged her knees even tighter and stared off into space, not wanting to be the bringer of bad news.
"We don't know..." Éclair said, looking at Raidon than to Kazumi.
"W-what? What do you mean?" Kazumi asked, staring up at Éclair.
"She left right after the funeral. Wrote a note saying she'd be back soon, and it's been a few weeks and she still isn't back. She didn't come out of her room once before the funeral, she was so depressed. She was worse than suicidal Clair over here on her worst days." Clair shot her rambling friend a glare, than rolled her eyes, not really caring that much anymore. "Aiko and Gaara were staying with Nikki so they could attend the funeral, and Aiko said her door was always locked and she had to always leave food at the door and Nikki never ate it and--"
"Lycan!" Éclair snapped, glaring at the shape shifter.
"Huh?" Lycan asked. Éclair gestured down at Kazumi who was sobbing again, with her head in her hands. "Ohh... opps..." Lycan said nervously, regretting her rambling. "I'm sure she's fine, I mean she's so stubborn, she wouldn't give up that easily and I'm sure she's just out--"
"Lycan!" Éclair yelled again, smacking the older girl. "You're rambling again!"
Lycan just winced and rubbed her arm.
"Great... She's probably dead..." Kazumi said. "She's suicidal too you know." She said to Lycan. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at Éclair, knowing that the two youngest girls of the group were the suicidal ones. The only difference was that Éclair would try to kill herself for no reason and Nikki only tried to kill herself when she was depressed or trying to protect her friends. They hadn't known for her to try to kill herself without a good excuse.
"She's not dead." Raidon said, her voice monotone.
"Let's hope so..." Kazumi added.
The four of them remained silent for a long time as they stayed in the graveyard. The wind blew slightly, ruffling their hair, adding a little life to their statue-like forms. The sky changed slowly from blue, to gray as the sun was covered in thick gray clouds.
"Looks like rain..." Raidon said, her voice still stuck in monotone, as if something would happen if she let any emotion leak into her voice.
"Let's go." Kazumi said she rose to her feet. She stared at her father's grave for a moment, before turning and walking with the others. Raidon slowly came out of her shell and returned back to her usual self. Lycan was blabbering on about being hungry and what she wanted to eat, while Éclair rolled her eyes at her friend. Soon Raidon joined into Éclair's eye rolling and tried to get Lycan to stop. After a while, all four of them were laughing and smiling. It was strained, but they were healing. Ever so slowly. They just needed the other two girls of their group; one was safe in Suna, but the other, they didn't know. However, they were determined to have the group back, one way or another. They would find Nikki. They refused to believe she was dead.
